Synergistic chemo-enzymatic hydrolysis of poly (ethylene terephthalate) from textile waste

Felice Quartinello (Author), Simona Vajnhandl (Author), Julija Volmajer Valh (Author), Thomas Farmer (Author), Bojana Vončina (Author), Aleksandra Lobnik (Author), Enrique Herrero Acero (Author), Alessandro Pellis (Author), Georg M. Gübitz (Author)

Abstract

Due to the rising global environment protection awareness, recycling strategies that comply with the circular economy principles are needed. Polyesters are among the most used materials in the textile industry; therefore, achieving a complete poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) hydrolysis in an environmentally friendly way is a current challenge. In this work, a chemo-enzymatic treatment was developed to recover the PET building blocks, namely terephthalic acid (TA) and ethylene glycol. To monitor the monomer and oligomer content in solid samples, a Fourier-transformed Raman method was successfully developed. A shift of the free carboxylic groups (1632 cm$^{−1}$) of TA into the deprotonated state (1604 and 1398 cm$^{−1}$) was observed and bands at 1728 and 1398 cm$^{−1}$ were used to assess purity of TA after the chemo-enzymatic PET hydrolysis. The chemical treatment, performed under neutral conditions (T = 250 °C, P = 40 bar), led to conversion of PET into 85% TA and small oligomers. The latter were hydrolysed in a second step using the Humicola insolens cutinase (HiC) yielding 97% pure TA, therefore comparable with the commercial synthesis-grade TA (98%).

Keywords

tekstilni odpadki;recikliranje odpadkov;textile waste;waste recycling;

Data

Language:	English
Year of publishing:	2017
Typology:	1.01 - Original Scientific Article
Organization:	UM FS - Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
UDC:	628.4.042:677
COBISS:	20615958
ISSN:	1751-7915
Views:	1107
Downloads:	309
Average score:	0 (0 votes)
Metadata:

Other data

Secondary language:	Slovenian
Secondary keywords:	tekstilni odpadki;recikliranje odpadkov;
URN:	URN:SI:UM:
Type (COBISS):	Scientific work
Pages:	str. 1376-1383
Volume:	ǂVol. ǂ10
Issue:	ǂiss. ǂ6
Chronology:	Nov. 2017
DOI:	10.1111/1751-7915.12734
ID:	10879508